Bati swirls the white hair on his chin. “No, other than what I gave you both earlier, I’m afraid.” He taps his lips. “Oh, I do have one rather old one tucked away. We have a little time before the sky hangs the moon. If you’d like to look, I can take you both.”

“Bri, would you mind going? I need to talk to Jhamal.” I have to tell him my plan. He’s literally held me up all these months, it’s the least I could do.

“Yeah, of course,” Bri says. “If Bati doesn’t mind.”

“Very well. We go, then.” Bati bows himself out, gesturing for Bri to follow, and they shuffle off out of my room. Jhamal’s hand works its way up to my shoulder, pressing circles into the tension buried there as the door creaks closed. It feels good, but I pull away from him.

“What?”

I sigh, pacing a few turns of the room.

“Jelani?” His tone tightens.

“Listen,” I say. “You’re not going to like this.”

He studies me.

“If I can’t find anything in the books here, I’m going to go back up there into the Central District. To Totsi’s.”

“Rue—”

“Alone.”

“I go with you.”

“And let everyone here kill one another? You missed it earlier, but Shaun and Kai were about to take each other’s heads off.”

“Agh. Shaun is… strong, a clear thinker, but when his passion gets the best of him… Beerchi, we…”

“You can’t possibly think fighting Kai is the way this needs to go. He was out of line. I’m not defending her, either, she’s got mad attitude. I’m just saying we can’t be fighting each other like this.”

“That is one way to look at it. You do not know Kai.”

“And I guess you do?” I hate the way the jealousy breaks through. That’s not me. That’s not who I am.

“Rue, you will not.”

“Bruh, that’s not up to you. Time is not on our side. I have a plan that gets us fighting, together.” I tuck the only book I haven’t finished under my arm. “Let’s get upstairs, after the Kowana Yachee…”

“Yeh-chi.”

“Kowana Yechi, I’ll tell everyone my plan to prepare for the fight to come. I don’t want them thinking I’m going off on my own. I’m in this. All of us. Together. But this is the way. Fighting, together. I’m sure of it.”

He sighs.

“Everyone’s magic restored will be something they want.” It’s our only chance, really. The strategy wheels are turning.

A vein at his jaw pulses and he looks away.

“They’ll have to get behind this. This will work, Jhamal.” I face him. “Look, I know you don’t like this because of how dangerous it is up there.”